

Rain runoff provides water for Hidden Falls as of 2021 I also highly recommend a visit to Hidden Falls and Uŋčí Makhá Parks, the newest and oldest parts of our city.Storm sewer opening and falls. Paul could be called Sintomonee, the downtown would be in what is now Highland Park.” And, because Hidden Falls is so much closer to Saint Anthony Falls, the Twin Cities might have become “Only one city instead of two.”įor more insight into the geology of Hidden Falls, including fascinating details about the nearby discovery of a giant beaver skeleton ( nominated to be Minnesota’s state fossil!), I recommend Dr. Paul.īut, writes Donald Empson in The Street Where You Live, if the settlement had been successful, “St. The settlers relocated further downriver and founded the City of St.

In 1839, however, fort officials claimed jurisdiction over Rumtown and burnt down its homes. Known as Rumtown or Sintomonee, it was the highest navigable steamboat landing on the Mississippi and located just across the river from Fort Snelling yet ostensibly outside its jurisdiction. Although the Highland Bridge development is brand new, the land near the falls was once the site of the earliest European settlement in Saint Paul. August 2022.īut fossils aren’t the only hidden history to ponder here. The new creek bed of Uŋčí Makhá Park offers opportunities for fossil hunting and exploration. As part of the new Uŋčí Makhá Park, visitors are invited via a stairway to explore the new creek bed. By design, the new creek invites this type of exploration. Greg Brick, who first recommended daylighting Hidden Falls Creek back in 2008, points out that the newly created creek bed, freshly cut through the limestone bedrock, has exposed numerous fossils. As of August 1, 2022, just a few finishing touches are left to complete on the viewing platform above the falls. February 2022 The completed project, with the new Hidden Falls Creek flowing through the tunnel toward the falls. The original Hidden Falls Creek flowing into its new stream bed. The new culvert for the orignal Hidden Falls Creek is visible as the tunnel and retaining walls near completion. A view from the same vantage point four months later. The disconnected ends of Mississippi River Boulevard can be seen at the top. The new creek from the central water feature joins from the right. The stages of construction help explain how all everything came together: About two months into the project, the culvert for the original creek can be seen in the bottom left to the. The rest of the new creek bed was excavated for the central water feature. The original Hidden Falls Creek itself, however, has only been daylighted about 40 yards upstream and still flows out of a culvert just above the tunnel under MRB. The Capitol Region Watershed District’s website offers a fascinating gallery of the construction work and design renderings of the project. In short, a greater and more consistent volume of much cleaner water will now be flowing over the falls. Views of the Highland Bridge central water feature, which opened to the public in early August 2022.

The storage capacity will provide consistent water flow in the central water feature and reduce erosion downstream.” Capitol Region Watershed District The water will then pass through filters before feeding the central water feature.
#Hidden falls series
“Hidden underground, a series of five large concrete chambers will store stormwater runoff. The Capitol Region Watershed District describes it this way: Hidden Falls’ new stream and its headwaters pond, referred to as the “central water feature”, is now fed by filtered stormwater from the entire Highland Bridge site. The culvert source of the falls can be seen in the upper left. Top of page: My daughter playing near the falls in August of 2018.Ībove: A small trickle of water flowing over the falls in August of 2020, before the project began.
